The Rise of Pong | Generation X

On loop, bloop-bloop! It was the coolest thing you've ever seen in your life, dude. It's a square ball that's moving at like the slowest pace ever. It's like so beautiful to watch. Pong, it's like this form of meditation.

Pong was the first successfully mass-marketed gaming console, the brainchild of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. People were interested in new things to do with their television sets for the grown-ups. This new technology is mind-blowing.

I can remember people playing Pong and saying, "How does the TV station know I turned the knob?" It sounds ridiculous now, but that was the mindset. But not for Generation X; we get it. It was just this totally new medium that you suddenly had control over.

It turned the screen into an interactive experience, into something that you manipulated, that you engaged with. Pong was the first video game I ever played, and I remember the first family fight, you know, over like whose turn it was and tears, and "let him play; he's the baby," stuff like that.

You just can't fathom that this innocuous black-and-white ball bouncing back and forth is going to change the world. But sometimes you use some happy surprises. Sure, we fooled around with pocket calculators in the classroom, but Pong, having video games in our own homes, means we're the first generation to interact with digital technology for fun.